Bruce Katz is a thirty-year veteran of the keyboard (Hammond B3 and piano) who came up playing in rooms where the blues actually lived, working early gigs with Big Mama Thornton, Bo Diddley, and Barrence Whitfield & the Savages before a nearly five-year run with Ronnie Earl & the Broadcasters and then years alongside Gregg Allman’s group. He has been based in Woodstock since 2005, which makes the Saturday, December 26 show at The Falcon in Marlboro about as close to a hometown night as his touring schedule allows. John Hammond, who has had occasion to assess keyboard players, called him “one of the greatest keyboard artists I’ve ever heard.”
About the Show
The Bruce Katz Band plays this evening as a trio: Katz on keyboards, Aaron Lieberman (formerly of God Street Wine) on guitar and vocals, and John Medeiros Jr., who has worked with Joe Louis Walker, on drums and vocals. The Falcon bills the night as part of its “Split Bill” showcase series on the Main Stage, with a set that moves through blues, soul-jazz, and New Orleans-inspired roots music.
Katz began piano at age five with classical training before the blues arrived; he holds a master’s degree in jazz performance from New England Conservatory and spent fourteen years as an Associate Professor at Berklee College of Music, where he taught the school’s first-ever in-depth blues course. That formal grounding runs underneath the improvisational quality that defines the band’s work. He has received multiple Blues Music Award nominations, including for the Pinetop Perkins Piano Player of the Year, and won the 2019 BMA for Acoustic Blues Album of the Year for Journeys to the Heart of the Blues, a collaborative project with Joe Louis Walker and Giles Robson. His 2025 live record Back In Boston Live charted at number eight on the Billboard Blues Chart; Connections (2024) was recorded at Capricorn Studios in Macon, Georgia. A new album is planned for early 2027.
Venue & Logistics
The Falcon is a jazz and blues club on Route 9W in Marlboro, a 150-seat room in the Hudson Valley that puts its audience close to the stage and keeps it there. Dining runs from 5:30 to 9 p.m.; no reservations required. Show time is 7:30 p.m.
Tickets
No ticket price was available from sources at the time of publication. Buy tickets through The Falcon’s website.